St. Landry democrat., 1887-11-26
NICHOLAS.
Senator Gibson's Address at
Delhi.
National Questions in Which the
People Are Interested.
LeVee Legislation in Congress and
What it Has Done for
Louisiana.
Appropriations and Work Completed,
Improvement Of Navigation Means
Protection from Overflow.

Improvement of Navigation Means
Protection from Overflow.
On Nov. II United States Senator r. L.
Gibson delivered the following address at
the Democratic meeting in Delhi, Richland
parish:
Ladies and Gentlemen and Fellow Demo
Gratis Of Richland Parish-It affords me
pleasure to meet you here to-day. The rela-
tlon existing between his constituents and
man in the public service, when that ser
vice is far removed from his home and peo-
Pile, Is q peculiar one. To many OF you am
personally a stranger. and most Of you are
personally strangers to me, but we are not
entirely unknown to one another. l have
been many years In your service at Wash
| lngton, and feel, therefore, that there nj ust
have arisen some
| TIES OF SYMPATHY AND FRIENDSHIP
between Won aud me, between my constitu-
ents and one of their senators in Washing
ton. | derive peculiar pleasure from pass
ing through this part of the state for
| while, as remarked a moment ago, am
| a stranger 20 most Of you, there are some
men here to-day, and have seen others in
| every parish through which | passed, TO
whom 1 am not a stranger in any sense
| whatever. We were bound together i'll the
| days that are passed as comrades in the
| confederate army, and there is no body of
| men in the world to whom feel more close
| ly attached than to the
| OLD CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS.
| Ichanced to meet only yesterday. at Ray
| vile, Mr.. Nunnery, member OF o company
that WAS raised In this parish of Richland
| and was commanded originally by Captain
| George c. Waddell, whom you all know now
| as a planter in your nelghbortDg parish of
Madison. That company served for long
| time in the Louisiana brigade which had
| the honor to command. This company mus
! tered l20 strong when it first went
out . and el, recruited 60 more during the
They lost during the four years OF
the war men for whom they could not &C
count. unless they deserted to the enemy;
only 50 OF the company survived and re-
turned home, and Of the SO % were disabled
by wounds or crippled by rheumatism.
NOW, felloW-citlzens, 1t gave me great
pleasure to meet this veteran OF the confed-
crate war. He himself had been wounded
nine different times in as many battles, and
like General Nichols. he had cork leg, for
he had lost leg In the battle Of Jonesboro,
Georgia.
Fellow-citizens, am told that some of our
friends on the other side Of the house in
THIS FAMILY QUARREL
for after all it Is more of family dispute
than anything else-complain tnat occa-
sionally refer in my speeches to the old
veterans OF the confederacy. Well, If that
be crime confess stand convicted.
can never surrender the sentiments l have
cherished OF devotion to the men who, for
four long years, bore the standard Of the
confederacy upon their bayonets, (applausel
and so many OF whom from my state gave
luster to the name of Loutsianians in Vir-
g1nia, and in Tennessee. Why should I
not allude to them when in every audience
some OF them appear. often after journey
of from ten to twenty miles, and take again
by the hand these old comrades ard talk
over the Incidents OF the war.
But, fellow-cltiZens.I am before you to-day
not TO speak Of these matters that relate 70
comparatively few men, the remnants of the
great armies that still survive in this state,
but to speak on political matters that relate |
to our
GENERAL WELFARE. !
Some writer has remarked that you must |
judge of the craftsmanship of a people by |
the condition of the country In which they |
live. If they have good highways, good |
schools, universities and churches, and peace |
and plenty prevail, their staJesmansntp is |
wise, sagacious and able; but il. on the con-
lions laDguish and discomfort permeates So |
ciety, the craftsmanship Of that people is
incompetent and inadequate. That is not |
altogether true, although they are the obser-
vations OF a philosophical man; because
government cannot make people; it is the
people that make their government.
Scotch poet has said, eff you will allow me to
make the songs OF people care not who
make their laws" That is not true either,
because the laws of a people have great |
deal to do with the happiness of the people,
Government was established primarily to |
secure order in society. When mankind in
the nomadic state lived In tribes, and had
no organized government or social sy STEM
there was no punishment for crime, no trial
by jury, no courts Of justice. So that the
prime
OBJECT OF GOVERNMENT
ls to protect life and property; but govern
mhnE aid tina naOnla a. |
other ways, because while 1t draws largely
from the earnings of the people through the
exercise Of the power OF taxation, the man
uer in which the earnings OF the people |
,alled taxes are distributed among the |
people again is a matter Of great impor-
,ance. Every dollar taken out of mans
pocket for public purposes Is paid to the
which has no money of it's own |
it is q pauper. There is not dollar
n the treasury of the state or of the United |
states which does not come from the peo-
Die. Therefore 1t is necessary for you to
leep sharp lookout to see what becomes | ,
If your earnings, and how they are appro-
,r1ated by the government. OF course you |
that most OF the revenues 20 to ,
he civil list as it ie called-the legislative,
he judicial, and the executive departments /
for other purposes-espectally I
lnder our state c0nstitution-that is for
public schools. for highways, for levees, and
or the
ENORMOUS PUBLIC DEBT.
Do our revenues equal the public expendi- /
uress Are we paying Oft our public debt {
r adding to it by appropriations in excess
+ revenues? These are questions you
ught to demand answers to. Have you | !
one sol
cannot pursue this subject. But 1t is the
nost important subject that can possibly en-
age your attention. Your federal govern
aent has been paying not only the interest t
ut the principal Of the national debt in ad- t
ance of its maturity. What is our state {
overnment doinga How much of our debt '
as been paid9 l understand not dollar OF 9
has been paid. Even the interest on some I
t our bonds-the baby bonds-has not been t
aid. And am informed that q large float
ag debt has been created, and that some
lasses of our warrants are selling for less 4
han rs cents on the dollar; and that this 9
cot has been created by an excess of ap- G
ropriation Of expenditures over and above q
ur revenues, in spite of heavy taxation on Z
Ign increasing Observation-Disclosures OF | Z
our property for taxation. Ii these things
Q SO, something Is going wrong. Our peo- h
le ought to have an administration con- =
acted on the old-fashioned maxium OF +
paying as You CO."
peak on this subject to-day, but upon Il
mother less Interesting, perhaps rather pro- !
aic subject, namely: T
HE BUILDING OF LEvEEs ON THE MIssIs- o
SIPPI RIVER. I
Ii fs not romantic theme, but very plain, b
tactical question, which will not appeal to b
our imagination but to your common sense. | 7
! the long run the safest guide for men in n
,gard to public affairs lie their sound iudg- %
ent in respect to the measures their public D
len advocate. q
You know as we'll as do that the richest G
nds In this state border on the Mississippi b
yer. and that the earliest settlers on the II
yer were compelled on account OF the an
ual over flows to build levees around their
rms ana Plantations. The great upper II
alley, when our f0refathers settled in the d
ate OF Louisiana, was wilderness, but n
thin the past thirty or forty years it has II
,come the seat OF the most powerful empire v
any land under the sun. Chicago itself ii